There’s a decision that every serious blogger has to make when it comes to social media.
Social media like Google+, Facebook and Twitter are great for promoting your blog, for getting ideas for blog posts and for connecting with your targeted audience.
But they’re also the biggest time suck known to man and can completely dominate your life as a blogger. I’ve known and seen bloggers who spent more time on Twitter than they ever did on their blog … and it showed.
So you have to make a decision:
Do you want to focus on social media or do you want to focus on blogging?
If you want to focus on growing your blog, social media need to be put in their proper place.
That means three things:
1. Making blogging your first priority
2. Making social media a means, not a goal
3. Using social media effectively
Let me explain these briefly.
Making blogging your first priority
Before you spend any time on social media, you need to first dedicate time to writing great content. That’s not necessarily about posting daily, as the trend seems to be to be posting less. It is about writing content that has value for your readers, that helps them and makes them want to come back for more. Making blogging your priority is also about developing the blog itself, making sure your blog has all elements of an effective blog.
Only then, when your blog is actually worth visiting, when you have something of value to offer to your targeted audience, only then should you invest time on promoting it via social media.
Making social media a means
I have two issues with using social media as a goal instead of a means. The first is that it really takes the social aspect out of it, if all you want to do is strive for numbers, like Twitter followers or Facebook friends. Numbers on social media have come to mean little, since people can actually buy followers, promote posts, etc. Focus on the social aspect and the relationships will help you much more than the numbers ever can.
My second issue is this: social media isn’t reliable. They can change their policies in an instant, for example, as Facebook has shown many times now. People have invested huge amounts of time in building a big Facebook page following, only to discover that it is now fairly useless since few people actually see their updates anymore.
Social media should always be a means to grow and promote your blog, not a goal in itself. Focus instead on what is reliable: your content. If you write great content, no matter what social media do, people will find you and read you.
Using social media effectively
You can spend hours on social media without any benefit for your blog whatsoever. If you can afford that time, by all means go ahead. But if your time is valuable, make sure the time you spend on social media is spent effectively. In this case the goal should be to support your blog.
Anything that doesn’t contribute to that goal is either a waste of time, or must have something to do with other (personal) goals you have, like keeping in touch with friends and family.
Do you spend more time on blogging or on social media?
[Editor’s Note: Be sure to read more awesome tips and tactics in the Focused Blogging series!]
Darryl Schoeman says
This is really a great post Rachel. Well thought through (focused). Well done. Social media is indeed a means to many ends, never the end itself. Your point on social media policy changes and its impact, is very pointed.
Rachel Blom says
Thanks Darryl!
Kurt Bennett says
As I read this, my wife was looking over my shoulder saying, “See, it’s like I said!”
Great post Rachel. Thank you for writing this.
Rachel Blom says
Thanks. You have a smart wife 😉
Eric Dye says
The wives, they know stuff. 😉